Daily Scripture Reading Romans 5:18 - 6:18

It is easy for Christians to fall into the trap of thinking that since we are under grace, then disobeying God is not that serious. After all, no matter how often we disobey God, we are still saved. Also, I have been in conversations over the years where I took a stand for New Testament morality in the areas of divorce and remarriage, or the role of women in church, and the response from other Christians was to say that we are under grace, not law; therefore, those rules are not important.

Paul anticipated those arguments when he wrote his letter to Rome. In today’s reading we will learn the Biblical response to those arguments.

When we stopped reading yesterday, we were reading that just as one man, Adam, brought sin into the world and caused all men to be sinners, so too one Man, Jesus, brought salvation into the world and provided a way for all men to be saved from the consequences of their sins.

Rom. 5:18 ¶ So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.

Rom. 5:19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were appointed sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be appointed righteous.

Rom. 5:20 Now the Law came in so that the transgression would increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

Rom. 5:21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Rom. 6:1 ¶ What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?

Paul said in verse 20 that an increase in sin results in an increase in grace. That might lead people to conclude that indulging in sin is good because that increases grace.

Rom. 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

We should not indulge in sin in order to increase grace because we have died to sin; thus, we cannot live in sin.

Rom. 6:3 Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

Rom. 6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

This passage explains the meaning of baptism. When a baptizee goes under the water, that symbolizes Jesus being buried. When a baptizee comes out of the water, that symbolizes Jesus rising from the dead. This is one of many arguments in favor of baptism by immersion. If a baptizee is not immersed, then they are not truly “buried” as Jesus was buried.

Rom. 6:5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,

Rom. 6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

The term “old man” refers to our sin nature, the person we were before salvation. After salvation, we are no longer slaves to sin; therefore we should not sin. We should not allow sin to control us.

Rom. 6:7 for he who has died has been justified from sin.

Rom. 6:8 ¶ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

Rom. 6:9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.

Rom. 6:10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

Rom. 6:11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Once we are believers, we should consider ourselves dead to sin, which means sin should not control us and we should avoid sin as much as possible. We should be grieved when we sin.

Instead, we are alive to God. We should have a desire to obey Him.

Rom. 6:12 ¶ Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,

Rom. 6:13 and do not go on presenting your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

Notice this is binary. Either we present our bodies to sin or we present them to God. It is one or the other.

Rom. 6:14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

The term “under law” refers to the fact that before Jesus, the Jews had to obey the Law of Moses.

The term “under grace” refers to the fact that after Jesus, Christians are not bound to obey the Law of Moses, we are bound to obey Christ. We do not have the strict set of standards that guide how we worship, what we eat, and how we dress. Instead, we have the rules spelled out in the New Testament.

Also, the concept behind the Mosaic Law was that if the Israelites could obey the law perfectly, then they could be righteous. However, no one was able to perfectly observe the Law; therefore, no one was able to be righteous.

The concept behind grace is that God considers Christians to be righteous even though we do not deserve to be considered righteous, regardless how many sins we have committed in our life.

Rom. 6:15 ¶ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

Just because we are under grace and not under law does not mean we do not have rules we need to obey. The New Testament has many rules.

It is easy for Christians to fall into the trap of thinking that since we are under grace, then disobeying God is not that serious. After all, no matter how often we disobey God, we are still saved. That is not a correct mindset.

Also, I have been in conversations over the years where I took a stand for New Testament morality in the areas of divorce and remarriage, or the role of women in church, and the response from other Christians was to say that we are under grace, not law; therefore, those rules are not important. Paul made it clear in this passage that all of God’s rules are important, even though we are under grace.

Rom. 6:16 Do you not know that when you go on presenting yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

Rom. 6:17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were given over,

Rom. 6:18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

As Christians, we are free from sin, but we are not free. We are slaves of Christ, which means we need to obey Christ. Furthermore, we should have a desire to obey Christ, even when it is hard.

Paul wrote that we are under grace, not law, but that does not give us a license to sin.

What are some examples you have seen of Christians abusing the concept of grace to indulge in sin or justify it?

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“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”